


Life, in One Way or Another

by TheAuthorsMusician



Series: Life with the Ghosts [2]
Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29223534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAuthorsMusician/pseuds/TheAuthorsMusician
Summary: Ivory has met her untimely demise and she’s getting used to it over time. Now though, something else is stirring inside Button House because a normal, calm year for Alison and Mike is never on the cards.
Series: Life with the Ghosts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975078
Comments: 20
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back for part 2 of this series! I hope you enjoy it just as much as the last part.
> 
> Just a mention before we begin, I like the idea of if a person died with an object in their pockets they would be able to use it after they died such as the Captain being able to use his swagger stick even though it is not a part of his clothing (if that makes any sense) and so I've used that rule during this chapter.

Over the past few months, Ivory had slowly been getting used to her new life as a ghost. Yes, it could get annoying in the fact she was unable to change her clothes or stuff her face silly with junk food from time to time but apart from that, not much had really changed. The news of her grandad passing away was heartbreaking but she felt more at ease knowing he was in a much better place where his mental health did not interfere with him anymore. 

Mike and Alison, on the other hand, had never been so rushed off their feet. Lately they had been investing more time into the wedding business they had wanted to start and so they had been planning and making phone calls for most of the days. However, with the added bonus of a little more money from what Ivory had given them in her will, it made things slightly easier. 

Mornings at Button House had become a routine which helped each day to flow. Ivory and the Captain would wait outside at 8 o’clock whilst Alison would set them off and time them. Over time, she was getting used to running on her ordinary prosthetic leg rather than the one she used to have that was designed for running but she had yet to beat his time of two and a half minutes. Once their morning activities were complete, they would usually discuss them in one of their weekly meetings. In fact, apart from all of this, the only new thing that was happening was the archaeologists digging in the basement for the bodies of the plague ghosts. Life at Button House seemed as quiet as it ever could possibly be.

Ivory and the rest of the ghosts were inside, participating in ‘Impressions Club’ which was not going as planned. Thomas stood at the front acting out his person but the whole group were still utterly baffled, he gave up.

“It’s the third Earl of Winborne!” he exclaimed to more confused looks.

“I’m not sure Impressions Club is going to work, is it?” Pat said after realising that everyone knew different people due to when they were alive and unless the person was extremely well known then there was little chance anyone else would know them.

“Outrageous!” Fanny cried, standing up and moving to the window and sticking her upper torso through it, “Alison, get the tradesman off the lawn!” she shouted. Ivory jumped up and looked out of a different window, the poor photographer was only standing part way on the grass but still Fanny continued to shout until he was completely off. From next to her she heard,

“Whatever happened to standards?!” and she heard the Captain, from behind, agree to her before he lunged and his knees cracked loudly. Ivory winced, that must have hurt.

The photographer left and they all wandered off to do their own activities. Some went for a turn about the house and others tried to find something to occupy themselves for the time being now that ‘Impressions Club’ had ended. Ivory made her way to the library to read with Thomas. She could turn the pages easier as each day went by as if it was a muscle that she had to build up that allowed her to touch and move things. Around an hour later, they were disturbed by the whole household and Mike started emptying photos and albums onto one of the desks and him and Alison started flicking through them.

Ivory looked closer at the photographs and realised, along with everyone else that Fanny was in every single one of them, Alison spoke up,

“Did you know this happens?”

“I had no idea.” Fanny replied, seeming just as confused as everybody else, “If indeed that is me. She looks at least twenty years older.” Julian was just about to comment before Ivory hit him and Pat shushed him.

“How come she can be seen?” Thomas asked.

“Perhaps it’s only if you’re grumpy.” Kitty replied and Robin followed on with,

“Or ugly.”

“Well, her photo’s all over Facebook now, so we can say goodbye to doing events. No-one wants a haunted wedding.” Alison said, continuing to look at the photographs.

“No-one will know. Look, it’s only one window and he doesn’t say where it is.” Mike reassured her and at the same time his phone pinged. They all looked at it and found that someone had kindly declared it to the whole world where the photo was from. He sighed, “Ok, but does anybody actually read the comments?” This seemed to calm things down until about an hour later.

“Er, Alison, you might want to see this.” Ivory said from where she was perched on a window seat. Everyone hurried over,

“Just look at them, gullible cretins!” Julian said, “I mean, what sort of moron believes in ghosts?” Everyone turned to him confused. 

“You are a ghost.” Alison reminded him.

“Well, yeah, but, you know, before I became one you wouldn’t have caught me believing in this sort of nonsense.” Alison made her way downstairs, grabbed her coat and went outside to talk to the people surrounding the gates. Everyone watched on from inside.

She started to walk back to the house, convinced that she had managed to get rid of the unwanted visitors. However, only half an hour later, the number seemed to have doubled. Robin came running in, 

“We on TV!” he exclaimed excitedly. Ivory, Alison and Mike followed him to where the TV was and they huddled around, along with Thomas, Fanny and the Captain. Alison and Ivory shared a confused glance at the man on the screen who was currently talking to the air beside him. Mike started scrolling through his phone,

“We are all over Twitter.” he said. The man on the TV started to talk again,

“It’s just a pity the owners are being so uncooperative, because the opportunity to study this kind of phenomenon is so valuable.” Out of the corner of her eye, Ivory saw Mike and Alison turn to each other and say something she didn’t quite pick up.

A little while later, Alison had sent Ivory off to find everyone in the West side of the house whilst she looked in the East. Once all of the ghosts were together, she started, 

“And you just get to be yourselves without me telling you not to, so go full ghost. Julian, Ivory, just shove anything you like. Robin, just go crazy with the lights. Mary, lots of weird burning smells. And a few Fanny pictures.” The Captain came forwards to declare his views on the situations before Alison stopped him and reminded him that he couldn’t haunt anyone even if he wanted to. He coughed and Ivory felt slightly bad for him. Thomas, Kitty and Pat also left despite how much they too wanted to help.

As hard as Alison tried, she couldn’t get any of the ghosts to agree to help her as they each stated their reasons and walked off. Only Ivory was left.

“Look Alison, I know you’re one of my lifelong friends and you know how much I would love to help. But I can barely turn some pages in a book sometimes and it’ll take some time before I’m as strong as my dad. So I’m sorry I can’t help tonight.” Ivory said before smiling and following the rest of the ghosts.

She found them upstairs, partaking in another round of ‘Impressions Club’, Pat was standing at the front. Not wanting to disturb them she quickly settled on the floor.

“Nice to see you, to see you…” 

“Nice!” Both Julian and Ivory shouted back, earning strange glances from the others.

“Gentlemen, there is an invasion afoot.” the Captain said, hurriedly coming into the room. Ivory jumped up from force of habit. “Despite expressly forbidding it, she has just opened up the border and let them all in. The place is awash with eccentrics and fantasists.” Kitty, Thomas and Pat quickly joined together and left the room in search of the guests whilst everyone else continued to listen to the Captain’s speech. After another minute, Ivory stood up too and followed them.

“Where are you going?” the Captain asked, confused.

“Well I’m not going to do anything but I do want to see how weird these people are.” Ivory defended herself, holding her hands up and leaving before anyone else could say something.

Ivory had found Kitty, walking on her own so they had joined up together.

“I thought Thomas and Pat were with you.” Ivory said.

“No, they left me as soon as they could. I don’t think they like me very much.” Kitty said with a slight sadness but her usual smile lingered on her face.

“What do you mean by that?” Ivory replied, stopping them both.

“Well, I think I’m too cheerful for them. When I was alive, my sister always told me I was too happy, that was usually before she asked me to play hide and seek with her. I’ve always been good at that game because she never found me.” Kitty said happily.

“You listen to me. There is nothing wrong with being cheerful and one can never be too cheerful. There is enough misery in the world to allow for some people, including you, to be as happy as you wish to be. Anyway, I’m sure they don’t not like you, they just probably don’t understand you. I might have something that will cheer you up.” Ivory said as she reached into her pocket.

“What is it?” Kitty asked excitedly.

“Well, the bonus of having really big pockets, as you’ll know from yours, is that you can put quite a lot in them. And when I was killed, I was carrying a few things including these.” she said, pulling a white paper bag out and opening it.

“What’s in there?” the Georgian ghost asked.

“Sweets, I have pear drops, aniseed twists, and oh, you have to try these.” Ivory said, pulling out a yellowish cube and handing it to Kitty. Kitty took it hesitantly, it was the first thing she would be eating in the past two hundred years. She put it in her mouth and all of her nervousness disappeared, it was delicious. She finished it and heard a rustle from the paper bag where it had appeared again, as if it hadn’t even been taken out.

“What was that?” she asked and Ivory smiled.

“That was a pineapple cube.”

“So that’s what it tastes like? Oh my, I feel like royalty. Thank you so much.”

“Come on, let’s go and find the others.” Ivory said, joining their arms and walking in the direction of the noise.

They found the group of ghost hunters following Alison through the main sitting room.

“We have a lot of poltergeist activity up here.” Alison said, trying her best to make things up as she went along. “We also have a smell-tergeist.” Kitty clung close to Ivory at this, until she was reminded that Alison was only talking about Mary which seemed to help ease her. Alison turned and ran straight through Mary, causing her to bend double and gag. Ivory winced, it was one of the only things that no ghost became used, being walked through and it brought a whole new meaning to having a chill when someone walked over your grave. A strong smell of smoke wafted through the room but the visitors still weren’t convinced that Alison was telling the truth due to the burning fire also providing a smell of burning.

“Now, anyway, back to the poltergeist.” she said, turning to one of the many sideboards which rumbled. Ivory was confused as she could see Julian and she herself was too far away to move it. Kitty screamed and ran before Ivory could stop her and for a moment she contemplated going after her but then gave up on the idea. A cup on top of the sideboard started to move and Ivory smiled as she thought she might have a slight idea about who or what was causing it to move. Hearing some noise behind her, she turned around to see Julian and Robin enter the room. There was a mischievous grin on her father’s face as he strode over to the cup and Robin came to her side.

“Me make light go boom.” he said, looking at Ivory.

“I thought you two weren’t helping and were instead keeping away from all of this?” Ivory laughed and he shrugged his shoulders with a laugh.

“Evening. Just resting my finger against this mug.” Julian said, before applying more pressure on the said mug. 

“Seriously, you two are unbelievable.” Ivory said with a smile, just before the striped mug was flung across the room and smashed against the wall. 

“Are these kinetic episodes related to the full-body apparition? The Grey Lady.” one woman asked.

“Well, I mean, she can be a bit elusive, but, er, fingers crossed.” Alison replied. 

She led them into another room and as she went out, Mary came in, backwards and promptly walked through a man who had remained in the room. He started to panic as Mary retched and Ivory rushed over to steady her, the poor woman had already been walked through twice in one night. Once Mary was feeling better, she went off to find Kitty, leaving Ivory alone to wander through the house until she came across Pat and Thomas.

“What have you two been up to tonight?” she asked them.

“One of the guests set up, what Pat calls, a microphone so we’ve been up there for most of this evening but then when they came back in, it seems that we didn’t get recorded.” Thomas replied, rather sadly.

“But did you have fun?” Ivory asked.

“I suppose so.” Pat said.

“Well that’s all that matters then, isn’t it?” Pat looked towards the window,

“Oh, no! Fanny’s exposed!” he shouted. They all crowded to the window, to where they could see Fanny standing outside, not too far from a ghost hunter. All of a sudden, the Captain appeared at the stone gates, running towards the Edwardian ghost. He got to her just as the ghost hunter filmed the spot where she was previously standing and together they passed through the doors.

“Two, twenty-nine. Shaved off a second!” the Captain exclaimed to the crowd of ghosts who had all gathered due to the commotion. 

“Two minutes, thirty, wasn’t it?” Pat said as the Captain left and there were various forms of agreement from around the room. A woman came running in from the stairwell and she seemed to struggle to get her words out,

“There’s a ghost upstairs!” she shouted which gained the attention of the others. The group of ghosts followed and made their way to the room where their clubs were normally held. The lights were off and all anyone could see was a dimly lit figure in a floor length, grey dress. Exactly like Fanny, except from the fact that she was currently standing behind them and was just as confused as they were.

“The ghost-ghost.” Kitty said as she pulled Ivory infront of her. Robin quickly got bored and began testing his powers on the lamp next to them, making the electricity in the room turn all of the lights on. This revealed the ‘ghost-ghost’ to be Alison and a rather hastily made dress.

“I think I just saw a ghost in there.” she said, pointing to the door to the adjoining room.

The next morning, Alison was joined by the ghosts at the front door as she handed people their money back. 

“I’m really sorry.”

“For exploiting people, just because they’re open-minded enough to accept the possibility that there might just be such a thing as ghosts?” Ivory laughed,

“If only she knew.” she muttered as she saw others look at each other. The woman continued,

“Because, let me tell you, there are spirits all around us. I just hope one day, you come to embrace them.”

“At least.” Thomas came from beside Alison. The door shut on them.

“That must be galling.” Pat said, trying to make Alison feel slightly better.

“Er, ghouling!” Robin said, playing on words. He laughed loudly as everyone followed Alison, not finding his joke funny.

“It was a little funny.” Ivory said, walking past him.

Mike was on his phone, with Mary peering over his shoulder.

“Huh...huh...hoax.” she said with a proud smile, she was getting better with her reading.

“Off the lawn! Off the lawn!” Fanny cried, striding over to the window.

“Now she does it.” Alison said much to her disbelief.

“Off the lawn! Off the lawn!” Kitty mimicked, causing everyone to break down in laughter and leaving Mike looking confused at his wife, laughing at nothing.

“Er, Alison, this has stopped working.” Julian said from across the room and Alison went to assist. Whilst everyone was distracted, Ivory placed her hand on Thomas’ arm,

“Come on, let’s finish that book we were reading yesterday.” she said, leading them out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that this story is set during Series 2 and so some chapters may seem familiar 🙂

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. Just come straight in when you get here, you know where you’re going. See you soon.” Alison said into her phone before putting it down. “Who’s coming?” Pat asked.

“Laurence and Katy.” she replied.

“Are you serious?” Ivory said excitedly, Alison nodded.

“She says she has a surprise.”

“Would you be able to set the laptop up so I can type and talk to them?” Ivory asked.

“Yeah, are you sure you’re going to be alright with this? I mean, the last time you saw them, Laurence was still alive.” Alison asked her quietly.

“It’s better now or never and anyway, I’ve not lost everything of him.” she replied softly, gently tapping the side of her head, “I’ve still got my memories.”

Alison turned the laptop on and turned on the notes page so that Ivory could join in with the conversation. Just after she had done this, they heard the front door open and a moment later, in walked Katy and James who was carrying Charlotte on his shoulders.

“It’s good to see you again. Come and give us a hug.” Mike said, stretching his arms out. James put his daughter down and she immediately got out her colouring book and pencils from her bag and went off to entertain herself. They both received a hug from Alison and Mike and then all went to sit on the sofa.

“So apart from the obvious, how have you two been since we last saw you?” Alison asked.

“Getting along, I suppose, and managing with what we can do.” James said, his eyes flicking over to Charlotte.

“Alison, can I ask a question?” Katy asked.

“Fire away.”

“Well, when I was here last, Ivory mentioned that there were ghosts in this house. I’m just wondering, is she here too or has she moved on?”

“Sucked off.” Mary corrected her. Ivory felt like this was her cue and so she started typing,

“ **Hi.** ”

The clicking noise caught the attention of James and Katy who looked towards the laptop.

“So you’re still here?” James asked.

“ **Still the same old me, don’t worry.** ”

“Anyway, one of the reasons we came was because I had promised to bring that photo album we talked about, the night of the concert. The one with Ivory asleep in random places and it has a few pictures of the group that I thought she might like.” Katy said, fishing in her bag and pulling out a book that looked like it had seen better days, “Ooh, I almost forgot, I also have her collection of ‘Call the Midwife’ DVDs that I’ve been meaning to give back to her.”

“ **Thank you, I hope you liked them.** ” 

“I must say, I now understand what you meant by ‘you’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll never feel so confused with yourself for doing so’. Go on then, who’s your favourite midwife, nun and male character?” she asked. Ivory thought for a moment,

“ **Barbara, Sister Monica Joan and Fred.** ” Katy looked at what she had written.

“I’d have to say Trixie, Sister Evangelina and Reggie.” she answered. James feigned insult,

“I’m offended you both didn’t pick me to be your favourite midwife.” He joked, his hand on his chest. Both of the women laughed along too, before something important was mentioned.

“There’s another surprise for you in the back of the photo album for you.” James said.

“Yes and we must be going because I have school work that still needs marking.” Katy said standing up, “Thank you so much letting us come.”

“Don’t worry about it, you know you’re always welcome here.” Mike said, standing up and giving them both hugs.

“And you’d better bring Lolly and your baby when you come next.” Alison said.

“Goodbye everyone if you’re in here.” James said, looking around the room where the ghosts were and reaching down to hold Charlotte’s hand. 

“See you next time Ivory. We love you lots and miss you more.” he said.

“ **Love you both too <3.** ” Alison walked with them to the door and Ivory got up to go over to the photo album.

“Well that was nice to see them.” Alison said coming back in.

“He’s still struggling with losing his Laurence.” Ivory said, looking over at her.

“How can you tell?”

“Whenever something is bothering him, he steers the conversation towards something completely unrelated and for him, that’s his job and midwifery is probably one of the most contrasting things when it comes to anything.” she said knowingly.

“Come on then, let’s have a look at these photos.” Julian said, coming up from behind them. Alison turned the cover page over and Ivory hid her head in her hands from embarrassment. 

The first image was her asleep standing up on a bus with Mat laughing at her as she leant against him and the second on the page was her asleep in a tree with her legs around a branch. Alison turned the page and at the top was the word ‘Weddings’. This page showed the weddings of Laurence and James and also Katy and her husband Kiell.

“Why isn’t your wedding on here?” Alison asked.

“Because I wasn’t allowed to invite anyone, he didn’t allow it.” Ivory said, not taking her eyes off the page. Alison nodded and turned the next page. There was a graduation photo and then one that Ivory snorted at with laughter when she saw it. Fanny leant over and emitted a noise of disgust whereas Julian chuckled at the same image.

“Does she care to explain this one?” Mike asked Alison, referring to Ivory.

The photograph showed the group of them, standing in a hallway, dressed in various swimming costumes (presumably what Fanny was disgusted at) and all incredibly shiny.

“Go on then.” Alison pushed.

“Well there was a storm so we decided to create an indoor slip and slide.” she explained.

“Why are you so shiny?” Kitty asked innocently.

“There was lots of lube involved.”

“But where did you get that much from?” Alison asked, Ivory shared a knowing glance with Julian.

“Alison, I think you forget that I used to live with two gay men.” she laughed and Alison’s face reddened as the Captain coughed, behind them.

“So anyway,” Ivory continued, “we covered ourselves in lube, put a tarpaulin on the floor and made a crash barrier at the end and went down it for the rest of the night. And no matter how many soft things we used, Mat still broke his arm by falling down the stairs which then led to a hilarious visit to the hospital.” 

“I’ve just realised, you’ve got both of your legs in this picture.” Alison said pointing.

“And you can see my old tattoo too. I used to have my thigh full of poppies as they’re my favourite flower but obviously I lost that at the same time I lost my leg.” Ivory laughed.

“It’s a bit lumpy towards the back.” Alison said, turning the pages to reveal a pocket on the inside cover. She reached her hand in and retrieved two memory sticks, one green and one purple.

“What be those?” Mary asked.

“I have no idea but if it’s with these pictures then there’s a good chance that it’s us just messing about.” Ivory said.

“I’ll plug them into the laptop if you want?” Mike said and Alison passed them over.

He plugged the green one in first and a few files popped up on screen and he started to read them out,

“Concerts, house and misc. Well that’s more helpful than I was expecting.” laughed Mike.

“I had no idea that we kept these.” Ivory said and Alison looked at her for an explanation.

“So the concerts section is as it says, all of our concerts that we’ve done. James probably recorded them all because he did all the electrics for them. The house section is photos of our first house that we shared, it had three bedrooms and seven of us lived there so we gave Laurence and James their own room and then the boys had one and the girls had another. But if I’m being honest, we generally just slept in whichever bed we fell into at night. In fact, I remember one night, we were that drunk, we slept in a big pile on the floor.” she laughed at the memory.

“So what’s in the other folder?” Alison asked, Ivory shrugged.

Alison leaned forward and clicked on it, it opened and revealed more folders with individual names. Ivory’s was at the bottom and so they bypassed the others and went straight for it, opening it. Inside there were different images, Mike pressed on the first one.

“Oh god.” Alison and Ivory said in synchronisation and they looked at each other. Mike, on the other hand, started laughing uncontrollably.

“Is that who I think it is?” Fanny asked, her hand placed over her mouth to conceal her smile.

“Unfortunately, yes.” Ivory said. On the left was a young girl with an array of mulit-coloured butterfly clips in her brown hair and on the right was another girl whose face was half hidden by long, blonde, tresses of hair and large, rounded glasses and she was holding a large book in her arms. This was Alison and Ivory on their last day of primary school. 

“You know what, it’s surprising how much you look like me with your blonde hair.” Julian said.

“You’re right, but I’m glad I got rid of my glasses, I was constantly breaking them.” Ivory replied, laughing.

“What are you reading?” Thomas asked, noticing the book.

“If I’m right then it was Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’.” Ivory replied.

“It doesn’t surprise me, when we were younger, we generally had to prise a book out of your hands to get you to do anything else.” Alison said towards her friend. Mike then went to the next photo,

“Is that?” Julian started.

“The Houses of Parliament, yes.” Ivory answered.

“But what are you doing there?” he asked.

“Working. My first job was as a tour guide around there. Quite funny actually, father and daughter, working in the same place at two completely different times and we’ve only just found out.” she laughed, “In fact I think there’s a video on Youtube of me doing a tour, we’ll have to watch it some time.”

Mike took the memory stick out and replaced it with the purple one. This one held more videos.

“I know what all of these are.” Ivory said with a smile, “I thought we had lost all of these.”

“What are they?” Kitty asked.

“Well if Mike would like to put the first one on, you will find out.” Alison got him to press play.

“So when we were deployed, we obviously got bored from time to time and you can’t get any better than British humour so we recreated the dance to Amarillo but made it into an ‘army version’.” Ivory explained laughing. A minute passed as they were watching it.

“I thought you were meant to be serious in the army.” Humphrey said.

“Well, yes, but a little fun never hurt anyone. Apart from maybe Julian.” she nudged the person in question, smiling. After the video ended, Mike then clicked to the next one, eager to see what it was.

“No way!”

“What?” Alison asked.

“This is one of our drunk productions.” Ivory replied.

“Drunk productions?” Pat asked.

“Yes, so when we got drunk, instead of doing the thing that everybody else did, and steal traffic cones. We would dress up, go down to the drama suite at our University which thankfully Simon had buttered up the professors enough to let us use it when we wanted, and we used to put on a production for ourselves. Sometimes they weren’t the best but then other times you probably wouldn’t have noticed we’d even been drinking.” she explained.

“What was this one then?” Alison asked.

“Judging by our clothes, this was our production of Sweeney Todd.” Ivory said, a bit too cheerfully when compared to the context of the play.

“Was the play a delightful one?” Fanny asked.

“You’d know it from ‘The String of Pearls’ penny dreadful.”

“Oh, so it was rather gruesome.”

“That’s the one.” Ivory smiled.

“Where did they get the clothes and the props from though?” Mike asked after being relayed the conversation from Alison.

“Mostly from the costume department but the razors belonged to Laurence and they were real, which was highly dangerous due to the fact we were intoxicated.” she laughed.

“Who did you play?” Julian asked after having previously seen the musical.

“Mrs. Lovett, so I was a cannibalistic pie maker in love with a serial killer, played by Simon. And the Beadle and the Judge were played by James and Laurence, respectively.” Julian nodded in understanding.

“We could put it on tonight if you wanted?” Alison suggested, “It is my night to choose a film.” Ivory agreed,

“Only if Mary is alright with seeing that ending.”

“Why, what be happening?” she asked. Ivory sighed and whispered it in her ear, not wanting to spoil it for the others. Mary waited a moment before nodding and allowing Alison to play it as long as she could close her eyes and not watch that section.

“That’s settled then, film night is sorted.” Alison smiled.

Ivory just hoped it would go as well as Alison’s optimism.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The version of Sweeney Todd I had in mind when writing this was the Broadway stage production with Angela Lansbury (yes she does voice Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast (1991 version) (so I’m sorry to ruin anyone’s childhood).


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, I got the name Geoffrey from Geoffrey McGivern who plays Barclay and I also included a quote from Winston Churchill which I know was made during World War Two but personally I think it could be used in reference to the Suffragettes too. Also Fanny is quite nice in this chapter and I like writing her like that 🙂.

It was mid-afternoon and Julian and Ivory were sat trying to have a catch up. After all they had missed the last few decades and whilst they now had all of the time in the world, they figured that they might as well start somewhere. Button House was unusually quiet for once, Mike and Alison had gone out to what they called a small, quiet gathering and the rest of the ghostly habitants were nowhere to be seen. This however, only lasted until that night.

There was a loud commotion outside and so a few of the ghosts went to the windows to look out of. They couldn’t hear what they were saying but from the way they were walking and the fact, they had been dropped off in a taxi rather than driving, suggested they were moderately inebriated and that they were more than likely going to continue drinking.

“This looks like fun!” Pat said and Ivory had to agree with him, ever since becoming a ghost she had started to miss out on going to functions and so a house party seemed like a good thing to break up the monotonous days.

“The bally nerve! It’s gone midnight.” the Captain said, also looking out of the same window. Ivory felt slightly sorry for Pat when she saw him turn and instantly agree with the Captain. Music came on downstairs and she slowly slipped out of the room before anyone could tell her otherwise. 

Once downstairs, Ivory discovered that the music was being accompanied by Mike, trying his best to beatbox. A few of the other ghosts had already arrived here before her and she looked around to see who was there: Thomas, Julian, Mary and Robin, who were dancing together, and Kitty. Ivory made her way over to the giggly Georgian ghost and started dancing with her so she wouldn’t feel too lonely. As she did this, Mike put some more upbeat music on and she had to hide a laugh as Thomas tried his best to dance with the women but unfortunately, he couldn’t have looked more out of place with his Regency style dance, accompanied by modern music.

Kitty soon left Ivory as Alison and a few of her friends walked past. Now alone, Ivory looked around, Mary and Robin had disappeared off somewhere and Julian was dancing in a way Ivory would rather not think about so that left only Thomas.

“Care for a dance?” she said, going up to him.

“I didn’t know you danced.” he said, curiously.

“I don’t really but let's be honest, I’ve read enough Jane Austen to give it a go.” she laughed. He considered it and then took her hand and led her to in front of him. They bowed and began to dance, Ivory thanking herself for being a quick learner. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Ivory saw Pat come down to talk to Alison and then look eagerly at the dancers before rushing back off. She continued to dance with Thomas until a yawn escaped her mouth.

“Do excuse me, I’m a bit tired actually.” she said with a smile.

“Perhaps you should retire for the night.” Thomas suggested and she agreed. They finished their current dance and she bid him goodnight before heading up the stairs where she came across the Captain, Fanny and Pat.

“Don’t tell me you too have been galavanting around this house, partaking in this awful dancing?” Fanny asked.

“I have actually yes, because it’s enjoyable and only for one night.” Ivory said, still slightly out of breath, if that was possible, from the dancing she had been doing, “Anyway, if it makes you feel any better, for the last hour I’ve been doing an English Country Dance with Thomas so I’ve not really been ‘partaking’ too much. And we’re all adults here, can’t we make our own decisions on what we do and what we don’t do?” At this, she saw Pat slide out of the room but she was certain that no one else saw. Ten minutes later, the Captain also left, leaving only Fanny and Ivory.

“I know how you feel about this party but you must have had some fun at one point.” Ivory said. Fanny thought for a moment,

“I suppose I did enjoy the dances myself, in my time and the occasional visit to the opera.” she said, reminiscing on the past.

“See, if you were allowed to have fun, then why can’t Mike and Alison and whoever else wants to join?”

“I suppose you’re right, would you follow me.” the Edwardian ghost said.

She led Ivory out of the room and to one of the corridors in the house, they were that far from the party that the only noise that could be heard was the slight clink of Ivory’s prosthetic as she walked. They stopped next to a large portrait that had been passed many times but not thought much of.

“This is my son, Geoffrey Button, and you remind me of him. When he was younger, he was always so frivolous and enjoyed many a party and I suppose the reason I resent them so much is because they remind me of him and the fact he is no longer with us.” Fanny said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Ivory said.

“Don’t worry dear, there’s no need for you to be sorry. It’s a fact of life that we’re going to die, what matters is what you do whilst you’re living.” Ivory nodded.

“It’s strange how much has changed in what little time there has been between us being alive.” Ivory said, “I mean, during the Edwardian era, your role mainly was to be a mother and a wife and to be the perfect lady. Whereas I-”

“Did activities only the Suffragettes would dare to do and could be who you wanted to be.” Fanny finished for her.

“Exactly. Never was so much owed by so many to so few. What did you think of the Suffragettes? I’ve never spoken to someone about it who was alive at the same time.” Ivory asked.

“I agreed with their views,” the grey lady said without hesitation, “I think they were a group of formidable ladies and I’m proud of what they achieved. Of course, my George never knew that, I shudder to think of what he must have thought of them.

This was a lot to unpack and Ivory’s non-living eyelids were drooping, another yawn escaped her mouth.

“Excuse me but I think I must be going to bed. Thank you for talking to me.”

“Any time.” Fanny smiled, “Goodnight.” Ivory nodded slightly and then clinked off to her bedroom, not knowing about the chaos that was about to unfold when she woke up in the morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying the second installation, always feel free to leave a comment, I genuinely love reading and replying to them 🙂 and yes I have snuck a Red Dwarf reference into this chapter 😂

Early the next morning, Ivory met up with the Captain for their daily run. She was running a few minutes late so was grateful to see that he was still there. 

“Alison is surprisingly late today.” he explained. Ivory nodded, the previous night was most likely the cause of it. After shouting Alison’s name a few more times, they saw her stumble over to the window and open it. 

“Ready, steady, go!” was all they managed to get out of her before she disappeared again.

Both of the military officers arrived back at the door to where Pat was waiting for them, he noted the time and then he and the Captain went their separate ways, leaving Ivory alone. Figuring she knew what Alison and Mike’s parties were like she decided against going into the main sitting room and instead she made her way back out of the house and headed over to the lake. There was a rather large tree near it that always felt relaxing to sit under. Time quickly passed and she ventured back, wondering if the living couple had managed to rouse themselves yet. 

They were both nowhere to be seen and so Ivory risked it and passed through the door to the sitting room. Almost immediately she had to hold back a laugh. Around the room were various bodies, all strewn across the furniture with some wearing the relics and others, she noticed when she looked closer, completely free to the open air. Mike had come in and was telling people to leave, closely followed by his wife, both looking worse for wear.

“Good morning.” Ivory said sarcastically. Alison just glared.

“Well it looks like you had fun.” Ivory continued.

“Don’t say anything. Mike, where are your shoes?” Alison asked him, he shrugged just before a loud drilling sound enveloped the house to which Mike left to go and investigate.

Alison quickly started to fill her bin bags with the rubbish that littered every available surface before the Captain and Pat walked in.

“Ah, Alison, there you are!” the Captain started, “Would you mind putting Guernsey’s Nazi Past on the VCR for me, please?”

“I haven’t watched my football yet.” Pat retorted.

“Would you kindly tell Patrick that he missed his turn and a miss is as good a mile. And I’m afraid-”

“Guys, please, can you keep it down?” Alison asked, her headache getting worse by the second.

“No, Alison, I’m sorry-”

“I don’t care!” she shouted back. Ivory thought it was a little harsh but it seemed to get the job done and at the same time, they heard Kitty agreeing with Alison before running out of the room. Deciding it was best to leave Kitty to have a small cry first, Ivory stayed to listen out the rest of the argument.

“So hungover I actually, genuinely...I do think I’m going to die.” Alison said, hunching over the bin bag she was holding.

“You need a remedy.” Mary suggested.

“Hair of the dog, love. Just drink more booze.” Julian offered.

“Now that actually does work,” Ivory said, nodding her head, “or you could do my trick and make a triple fried egg, chilli, chutney sandwich.” Everyone grimaced at the thought of it.

“I have the cure.” Mary started, “Soak some mushrooms in milk of the goat and vinegar till it’s all warm and musty.” Alison stopped her as she gagged.

“Somehow that seems worse than the sandwich.” Ivory said with a laugh.

“Well, you see, Alison, this is what happens when you overindulge. When you give in to gay abandon. You reap what you sow, you reap what you sow and now the soil returns.” the Captain said.

“Hey, look, Cola!” Pat exclaimed, “Best thing for it.”

Alison took a large mouthful before realising that it was where everyone had decided to extinguish their cigarettes. She quickly spat it back out and it passed straight through Ivory.

“Watch it!” Ivory exclaimed, jumping back before realising it couldn’t touch her.

“Ah, here she is!” came a voice, followed by the Edwardian lady coming through the door. “The madam! The hostess! Just when I think you have grasped the responsibility of the family seat, you turn this place into a den of iniquity, inviting goodness-knows-who to do goodness-knows-what!” At the same time, it seemed both Alison and Ivory saw one of the late goers wake up and walk over holding a well placed cushion. A small laugh escaped from Ivory’s mouth which alerted Fanny to look over her shoulder. She gasped.

“Sorry, I think someone’s hid my clothes.” the mystery man said, looking through his drawn on glasses.

“Good lord.” said the Captain. Ivory shook her head and then laughed to herself as his eyes didn't leave the man’s body but if she was to guess, she would say it was a result of shock.

“Enjoying the view are you?” Ivory whispered to him and all she got in response was a glare and a gulp. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” he replied.

“Don’t worry, I’m just joking.”

By this point, Thomas had found his way in and looked eager to talk to Alison.

“Where’s Dante?” he asked.

“Dante?”

“The dog.” She stilled for a moment and then rushed to the entrance of the house to find an empty stand where a particular black and white dog should have been.

“He’s not here.”

“Ooh, you’re in trouble now.” Julian said.

“But I thought he was just an ornament.” Alison said, helplessly. 

“I’ll go and look for him.” Ivory said before leaving to try and find the missing dog before its owner did. Only a few minutes later did she come back.

“Err, you might want to see this.” she said, pointing behind her.

“Oh, my word!” Alison exclaimed as the plague ghosts appeared one by one.

“What are you doing up here?!” she asked.

“We’re actually going to live up here now, actually.” Nigel said from the back of the queue.

“Mick killed us all.” Walter summarised for the sake of everyone present.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We can’t be sharing the place with these plebeians.” Julian said.

“Careful there, your inner politician is showing.” Ivory joked and Alison laughed along too.

“He gave us all the plague.” came another voice.

“Yeah, look.” Nigel said, showing a large bubo on his neck.

“And this.” came yet another voice. However the final straw was when Walter decided to lift his tunic and scar them all for the rest of eternity.

Mick arrived and Ivory was sure she heard someone swear at him, which was a little harsh but then again, he had killed them all.

“Can you please go back downstairs. Because, no offence, but you’re actually making me feel really sick.” Alison tried and Ivory quietly slipped away through the front door.

Her first port of call was the bathrooms because if she had learnt anything from her best friend’s house parties, it was that everything always ended up where you least expected it. She came across Kitty,

“You haven’t seen Dante have you Kitty? He appears to have gone missing.” Ivory asked her. She thought for a moment,

“I think I might know where he is, I shall go and tell the others.” she said before skipping off. Ivory then remembered that there was an instant during the previous night which involved many shoes being thrown onto the roof of Button House. So that was where she headed to next. She stuck her head through the wooden door and to her surprise, this is where Mike had somehow ended up too. Climbing the last few steps up, she walked out onto the little bit of flat roofing that there was and leaned over to see how far down the drop was.

“Ooh, hello Humphrey, what are you doing up here?” she asked him.

“Bit of a long story actually,” he laughed, “Robin was trying to copy what Mike was doing with the shoes and as you can see, he succeeded. But then when I was up here, I realised I didn’t think it through properly and I’ve been here all night. The story wasn't actually that long was it?”

“Would you like me to get you down?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” he smiled. Ivory picked him up and noticed one of the windows was open, maybe if she shouted loudly enough, Alison would be able to hear her. However, Mike had other ideas as he started to climb over the ledge.

“Long way down.” Humphrey shouted out to Mike.

“I think he knows that.” Ivory agreed, nodding her head in agreement, “He could have at least thrown all of the shoes down though.”

“Do you think we should warn Alison about Mike and him possibly falling from the roof?” Humphrey asked, Ivory nodded again.

“ALISON!” they shouted together just as a car arrived. It didn’t work so they tried again. A woman got out of the car and walked over to the door, she knocked and it opened at the same time as the bolts on the drainpipe broke, sending Mike straight to the ground. All anybody could do was watch as Mike was covered in pigeon waste and Alison released the contents of her stomach over the wedding planner. So far so good.

“Come on, let's go down.” Ivory said, with Humphrey’s head in her arms. Two minutes later, they arrived with the others. She attached his head to his body as it walked past.

“Thank you.” Humphrey said getting used to having a body again.

“Well that went well.” She said to Alison who was trying her best to not throw up again, “Let’s get you something to eat and drink and then you both need to get to bed and sleep it off.” Alison nodded and Mike came inside and shut the door behind him before they both headed into the kitchen and then up the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter for this week 🙂.  
> I have mentioned the website Zoom in this chapter as recognition of how much it has been used during this pandemic so far and as a recognition of how well it has been able to keep people together in these tough times. I promise I won’t mention the virus after this though, we all need a little bit of time away from thinking about it.

“You know what’s strange?” Alison started as she reached up to clean the last window in the room, “We’ve been such good friends for so long and yet I have absolutely no idea where you lived before you came here.”

“Have I seriously never told you?” Ivory asked, looking up from the war documentary she was watching with the Captain. Alison shook her head.

“I’ll tell you what then, if you go and get my keys, I’ll show you which one it is and I’ll tell you where to go.” Ivory said.

“You mean you still own a house?” Alison asked. Ivory thought for a moment,

“I wouldn’t call it a house, more of a place to sleep when I needed it. You’ll understand what I mean when you see it.” she added, due to the confused look she was receiving. Alison went off to grab the bunch of keys that hadn’t been touched in months.

“Right so the one you need is that little one there.” Ivory said, pointing to the smallest one of the lot.

“That doesn’t look like much of a house key.” Julian said coming over.

“Like I said, it’s not a house.” his daughter replied with a shrug.

“So anyway, you were going to tell me how to get there weren’t you?” Alison asked.

“Yes, my way of getting there is to jump over the fence just past the driveway and go across the field for about a mile and then you’ll get there.” Ivory said as plainly as possible.

“But that just leads you to where all the storage units are.” Alison said, confused.

“Exactly and that’s where you’ll find what you’re looking for.”

“You mean to tell me that you lived in a storage unit?” Ivory shrugged,

“It was the best place because no one knew where I was so no one could find me.”

Alison shouted for Mike to come down and to get ready for a walk as she changed over from the finished war documentary on her laptop to open Zoom in order to be able to contact the ghosts but they could see what was happening at the same time. As they were getting ready to go out, Alison noticed the living room had got full quite quickly which came as a surprise to her.

“What’s everyone doing here?” she asked.

“We see world.” Robin said plainly, and then it hit Alison. With the exception of Ivory, Julian and possibly Pat, it had been decades to centuries to even millions of years, from Robin’s point of view, before any of them had seen outside of the grounds and they had almost no idea of what the world looked like that wasn’t shown on TV. No wonder they reacted the way they did when there were visitors.

“Ready when you are.” Mike said, zipping his coat up. They walked out of the house and appeared on the laptop screen.

“So what you’re saying is to go over this fence?” Alison asked.

“Yes.” Ivory said and then laughed as Mike fell over it. The view for the ghosts was currently the lumpy field that the couple was walking on.

“You wouldn’t be able to move the camera up a bit would you?” Ivory asked, “I think we all know what grass looks like by now.” she laughed and their view got better but it was only upgraded to trees and clouds.

“Are we nearly there yet?” Mike asked, regretting his heavy coat on a surprisingly warm day.

“Nowhere near, it’s at least a twenty minute walk.” Alison said, laughing.

“How is the video for you? I know you can hear us but what about seeing us?” Ivory asked.

“I can’t see you all fully but I can see wavy blobs of air.” Alison tried to describe.

“Wavy blob of air? Well I’ve been called worse.” Ivory replied, as she heard Julian laugh behind her.

The mile of walking was finished and the storage units were in sight. Alison looked at the number on the key she was holding, ‘48’, and they tried their best to find it. Once they had she turned the key in the door and put her hand on the handle. 

“Welcome home.” Ivory said, sitting back and watching them walk in, turning the light on in the process.

Directly in front of them was a small makeshift kitchen, composed of a small oven, a refrigerator and mismatched cupboards all littered with trivial items, such as knives and utensils. To their right was a wooden table with four chairs that looked like they all belonged to different sets and the majority of the floor was covered by a vast, shaggy carpet. At the far end of the room in the left hand corner was a single bed with hospital corner covers and a yellow blanket thrown carelessly on. And in the other far corner was a comfy armchair and mismatched footstool, accompanied by a full wall of books to its left which stretched all the way back down to the dining table.

“Not what I was expecting.” Alison admitted.

“I think it’s cute.” Kitty said beaming.

“Yes, it is rather quaint isn’t it?” the Captain said.

“So this is where you lived?” Julian asked Ivory. She nodded,

“That’s right. I’ve spent a good few years there at least before coming here, just me, myself and I.” 

“But weren’t you ever lonely?”

“I was never lonely because I had company in the characters of my books and as Sir John Lubbock once said, ‘We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth, which I agree with. So no, I wasn’t lonely.” she smiled in response.

“What’s this down here?” Mike asked leaning down and pulling a box out from under the bed.

“A special collection and I’m going to be cheeky and ask you to bring it back with you if you can.” Ivory said. Over the screen they could see the box being opened and it was full of VHS tapes and DVDs as well as a few CDs. One by one, Mike started to pull them out and read the titles.

“Stath Lets Flats, The Vicar of Dibley, Loaded, Yonderland.”

“Ooh,” said Alison leaning over and picking up a CD, “All Angels, I used to love that group! Can I keep it?”

“If you want it then it’s yours.”

“Thank you.” she said, slipping it into her pocket.

“I didn’t know people lived in storage units.” Alison continued.

“That’s because people don’t. One, there’s not much room for anything and two, it’s highly illegal.” Ivory said.

“Outrageous!” Fanny exclaimed.

“Well I was never caught!” she retorted with a mischievous grin.

“Is there anything else you want us to bring back because it’s starting to rain and I don’t fancy walking through a muddy field coming back.” Alison asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” Ivory replied after thinking, “Unless there’s anything you want.”

“I’ll see you when we’re back then.” Alison finished just before Mike turned the call off.

“That was fun.” Kitty said with a smile.

“I agree, it was nice to see outside of the grounds, if only a small amount.” Thomas agreed.

“I still don’t know how you managed to live in a place that small.” Julian said.

“It easy,” Robin answered, “it small like cave. Cave was very good for me. No fancy houses then.”

“Just as Robin said, I had no need for a big place that pinpointed my exact location when I could have a little bit of space to stay and store my stuff. Also James now knows about it too because I wrote it into a letter that he got after I died so that he could go and do whatever he wanted with it.”

They heard the door open and in walked Alison and Mike who were both dripping wet as it seemed the heavens had opened on their way back.

“You both look like drowned rats.” Ivory laughed.

“Come in, get your wet clothes off and get warm before you catch cold.” Pat said, sounding like he was talking to his scouts.

“Alison, I have a question.” Kitty piped up, “Can we do the video calling thing again? It was so much fun to see a new place.” Alison thought for a moment.

“Well I don’t see why not. Maybe not every time we go out but I think we might be able to manage most journeys.” she replied, Mike seemed to agree and they both traipsed up the stairs.

“Just let me give you a warning.” Ivory began, “The world is really not what you’re expecting.”

“It’ll be fine, it can’t be that bad with Thatcher around.” Julian said, straightening his tie. Ivory decided it wasn’t the best time to tell him the news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Mike and Alison were looking through the video collection, I tried to link them to the cast of Ghosts as best as I could on various degrees and some are obvious such as, 'Stath Lets Flats' and 'Yonderland' and I also included 'The Vicar of Dibley' as Kylie Minogue makes a guest appearance and the character of Alice says 'brillo pads' during one of the episodes so I think both Thomas and Pat would enjoy watching it and 'Loaded' has both Jim Howick and Lolly Adefope in. The band All Angels also contained Charlotte Ritchie so I think Alison should have a good reason to like that band 😂.
> 
> Some of the other programmes I was thinking of including Horrible Histories, Bill, the IT Crowd (both Alice Lowe and Sarah Hadland acted in this and also in Horrible Histories together), Red Dwarf (on the Captain's wiki page it references him being similar in character to Rimmer due to them both declaring themselves as ranking officers due to their similar circumstances. And finally, the last programme I had planned was Miranda as Sarah Hadland was in Horrible Histories (above) and Miranda Hart worked on Call the Midwife alongside Charlotte Ritchie (also a reference to when I mention the series in a previous chapter).
> 
> If anybody has actually got this far and has bothered to read this note (I probably wouldn't) then well done and this is how my mad mind works 😂😂


	6. Chapter 6

After the unfortunate events with the previous wedding planner, Mike and Alison had managed to secure another viewing with a different company and at that present moment in time were showing him around the house. Ivory was following and every time the wedding planner, Martin his name was, noted another feature of the house, she would imitate him. This was all well and good for both of the men in the party but it did result in Alison trying to keep a straight face at everything he said.

“I heard Isabelle from Belle’s Weddings passed and you were sick on her.” he said and Ivory imitated being sick behind him. Alison tried her best not to look at her friend and instead corrected him,

“Ah, no, I was sick near her.” 

“Yes, because there’s such a big difference.” Ivory laughed.

“Some went on her.” Mike added, “A little bit.”

“And he’s not helping.” the ghost said, pointing at him.

“Can I be honest with you?” Martin asked, “I don’t like it. I love it! It is a little shabby around the edges but with a bit of zhooshing up, this could really suit the right couple.”

“And do you happen to have any clients who are interested, like soon?” Alison asked. Martin thought for a moment,

“There is one, Clare, I’m showing her some other places today. She wants to book in ASAP. Shotgun wedding.” he added on the end in a whisper before stating that he was joking. He started to rhyme things off on his list and Ivory had an idea. She went to the bottom of the stairs,

“Julian!” she shouted up, after a moment he didn’t show up and she couldn’t hear him either so she tried her plan B.

“Dad!” she shouted even louder and as she guessed, he turned up within seconds.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I know you like making bets so how about £10 on this wedding planner being gay?” Julian mulled it over,

“Alright deal.” he said with a mischievous grin.

By the time Ivory had made her way back to where she had left Alison, Mike and Martin, they had vanished and she guessed they were in the garden due to the open door at the very end of the hallway. Her eyes drifted over to the baby grand piano that had stood still for as long as she had been there. Sitting down at the seat, her fingers grazed lightly over the tops of the keys. Out of all of the things her mother had made her do as a young child, becoming a pianist was most likely her favourite. Humming a melody under her breath, she pointed to the corresponding keys and then after a while she began to press the keys down. Finding that if she pressed each one lightly it didn’t take too much energy and soon a hauntingly beautiful piece of music in B♭ minor began ringing out.

Completely engrossed in the music, Ivory failed to realise that the ghostly inhabitants had followed the trail of music and were now standing behind her, as quietly as they could. She finished the piece and heard a noise so she turned around to see everyone watching her. She gave a weak smile and then collapsed from exhaustion against the wall where she then fell asleep.

“Did anyone else know she was a pianist?” Pat asked, they all shook their heads.

“That’s the best I heard in a long time though.” came Humphrey’s voice from Mary’s arms. 

With a yawn, Ivory woke up and stretched, cracking her back in the process.

“What did I miss?” she asked weakly.

“Well we still don’t know what film we’re going to watch and we just discovered that you can play the piano.” Thomas said.

“Yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that.” she laughed.

“Anyway,” Julian started, “I think Alison should know whose turn it is tonight to pick the film and I think you will find she will say me.” he finished, straightening his lapels.

“You do that then and I’m going to stay here and probably go back to sleep.” Ivory replied, her eyelids drooping.

Thinking she had got some peace and quiet at last, she dropped off but only a few minutes later the rabble came back in.

“Sorry Ivory but Alison’s asked me to occupy this lot.” Pat said apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it, I can sleep when I’m dead.” she joked with a wink and went over to join them on the sofa.

“I missed the whole thing,” Julian said, “I was still a student at Cambridge busy having my own ‘moon landing’ if you know what I mean! My first threeso-” 

“Yes thank you, I think we know what you mean.” Ivory said, clapping a hand firmly over his mouth to stop him from continuing.

“Moonah!” Robin exclaimed, drawing everybody’s attention to the laptop screen. 

The Captain walked in,

“Ah, there you are. What’s going on here?” he asked and Pat explained and after a few hushed words between the two, the Captain rushed out of the room along the corridor and through the door that led to the side garden.

“I’ll go and see what’s up. He might confide in another officer.” Ivory said and then hurried along after him.

“Belay that order, Michael. You can’t dig there. That’s a negative.” the Captain shouted at Mike who couldn’t have been more clueless. Alison began to question him about it and Ivory hung back slightly as to not draw attention to herself.

“Hey.” she said, jogging up to the Captain, “Are you alright? I’ve never seen you this concerned about anything before.” He studied her face but when all he saw was honesty, he started to confide in her.

“I hope Alison takes heed of my warnings because I wasn’t lying when I said it was potentially explosive. What I have buried down there is a prototype limpet mine.” 

“Hang on.” she interrupted, “You’re telling me you’ve kept a bomb on this land for the past eighty years without anyone knowing? Why!?” The Captain sighed.

“It was to conceal a secret. When your grandfather left us, left me, I decided to bury our letters with the mine so that if anyone was to ever uncover them, they would be destroyed. I couldn’t get rid of them myself.”

“That means if either of them dig there or cause any major damage to that area, the bomb will detonate and could seriously injure either of them. I mean, I know what type of damage one of them could do.” she realised and then chuckled, lifting her prosthetic slightly.

“Let’s just hope they move to a different area of the garden.” the Captain said. They talked some more until a scream was heard and both of them shot to where it had come from. 

Reaching the scene, it appeared as though both Mike and Alison had ignored the Captain’s wishes and instead had lit a fire over the top of the bomb. The scream, it turned out, had come from poor Mary who had found herself in the middle of the fire which had unfortunately reminded her of her death.

“What the bally hell do you think you’re playing at? Alison! Get away from there! Get down! Get Mike out of the way. It’s going to blow! It’s a bomb!” the Captain shouted, hurtling around the corner with Ivory not too far behind.

“Mike, Mike, get back! Just get back!” Alison shouted to her husband who was none the wiser. He wasn’t as fast to move as they would have liked and without thinking, Ivory ran between him and the bomb, shielding Mike as best as she could, despite it not making any difference. At the same time, she saw the Captain share the same train of thought and jump on the bomb as it exploded to protect the rest of the household. 

The smoke cleared and Ivory could see the Captain standing in the crater that the bomb had made. A piece of rubble flew through the air and hit a statue that Kitty had been hiding behind causing it to fall down and break. Coming back to her senses, Ivory quickly made her way over the rubble and flung her arms around the Captain’s neck, hugging him tightly. He tensed up and wasn’t sure what to do as this was the first physical contact he’d had in many years.

“Please don’t ever do that again.” she whispered between small sobs. She could feel him relax and his hands rested on her back as he gave a small squeeze back. Ivory let go and looked up at him and then at the others, with tears in her eyes. Her hands were shaking and she couldn’t bear to stay any longer next to the crater that reminded her of so much so she quickly turned and fled in the same direction as Mary. 

She decided to go to one of her favourite places in the house and turned down the corridor which led to the library. It was also the quietest place as only her and Thomas usually resided there and so she was unlikely to be disturbed. That was until Alison came around with Martin and Clare but thankfully they didn’t stay too long. She slowly flicked through one of the books that had been left out and tried to drown herself in it but her mind kept flicking back to the incident. 

“Are you alright?” came a voice behind her. Not expecting it, she jumped and turned around to see Thomas behind her. She patted the seat next to her and he came and sat down.

“How did the Captain look when I left? I think I scared him.” Ivory asked with a slight smile. Thomas chuckled,

“He did look a bit taken aback but I think he’ll get over that quite soon. What are you reading?”

“A poetry anthology but I’m struggling to turn this page so I’m unfortunately stuck on one of Byron’s works.”

“Unfortunately? You do not like him either?” Thomas asked.

“I can’t stand him. He was a pompous womaniser who stole other people’s work. He’s nowhere near the standard of the greats: Wordsworth, both the Brownings, Thorne, the list goes on but Byron is not one of them in my opinion.” Ivory said.

“One moment, you mentioned me there. I’m surely not that good.”

“Maybe not but you’re better than you or anybody in this house credits you for and I suppose that it’s another thing that makes us alike.” 

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well we both take an interest in the English language, we were both shot, we both enjoy your poetry and we both dislike Byron. Yes I’ve done it!” she celebrated as the page turned and then sank in defeat, “I’m not reading this anymore. It’s another page of his work.” she laughed.

“Come on, let’s go and find the others. It’s almost time for the film night.” Thomas said and stood up, waiting for Ivory to follow suit.

They found the rest of the ghosts huddled on the sofa and chairs and a few smiled as Ivory and Thomas walked in but none mentioned the events of the day. Thomas took his usual place and Ivory settled on the floor next to Robin and Julian, before film titles started to be shouted out.

“The film I’ve chosen has something for everyone,” Pat said, “drama, visual poetry. It’s got some of your lot in it, Robin. And some pretty ladies for Julian. It is of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey.” Alison started it and they settled in. Ivory smiled, thankful to be loved, thankful to be with people that never judged and thankful to be with family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The piece of music I had in mind when Ivory was playing the piano was The Lark by Glinka/Balakirev (it's on YouTube if you want to listen to it). Also I do believe that the envelope contents of 'Operation William' were letters not blueprints and the Captain buried them for both of their sakes.


End file.
